We often think about the Caucasus as the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Add another ancient road to this: Africa! At archealogical excavations in Dmanisi 1.75 million years old Hominid remains have been discovered. (reconstructions below).

A unique project in Abkhazalogy was presented at Sokhumi State University, Tbilisi, on November 6. The aim of the project is to create an electronic library of Abkhaz literature published mainly after 1991 on the Abkhaz language, grammars and dictionaries, as well as works on Abkhaz archeology, history, ethnography, folklore, literature and other areas of the Humanities. The project is funded jointly by UNDP and EU (COBERM).

Project leader is professor Teimuraz Gvanceladze (photo above, to the right), a prominent specialist on the Abkhaz language and Director of the Institute of Abkhaz Language and Culture at Sokhumi University. Co-workers in the project are both Abkhaz and Georgien scholars: Dr. Rezo Kacia, Dr. Gvanca Gvanceladze, Dr. Tamar Gitolendia and Sofiko Chaava. The research team has already started their work and at the project site around 60 pubications are already available: www.abkhazovedenie.com.

The project presentation was covered by the Abkhaz team of the news program Moabe, 2TV (Meore Arkhi), November 7. In the clip below professor Teimuraz Gvanceladze tells about the project and, as one of the foreign guests at the presentation, professor Karina Vamling, Malmö University (Sweden), gives her views and comments on the importance of the project. The program is broadcasted in the Abkhaz language.

Contacts and international exchange – Sokhumi University and Malmö University

“No to annexation”

Today, on November 15, the central Rose Square and Rustaveli Avenue i Tbilsi, were closed for traffic. From the morning police vehicles and hundreds, or most probably several thousand, policemen lined up along the avenue, blocking off side-streets. By 3 o’clock the square was packed with demonstrators, gathering with flags and banners. Among the Georgian flags were many EU flags, US and UK flags, Ukrainian flags. The banners carried slogans such as “Stop Russia”, “Russian troops – get out of Georgia”.

The rally is a protest against “Russia’s occupation” of Georgia’s breakaway regions. It is organized by the opposition party United National Movement, which criticises the current Georgian government for not being sufficiently active in countering this development.